Nateaser: Reborn As My Love Interest

Omerta - Ch. 111

"Now watch this."

I had a well-refined method to deal with the earthworks and practiced it with Lambert back in Nateaser. I used limited telekinesis that only affected certain materials, like the dirt in this case, the staff even multiplied my strength, and I barely had to concentrate on the phantom forces or the mana manipulation. The earth looked like it disappeared from our way voluntarily, opening a path directly into the dungeon.

"Wow, I had no idea you can do this, Omerta." Nati praised me, although I expected a little more from the others. Gitaut was unimpressed, seeing through my simple tricks, and Ember seemed more jealous than anything, but the otherworlder sisters at least appreciated my talent. It was easy to please a rookie audience.

The path that opened for us was roughly a hundred yards and I aimed it right into the center of the huge underground circle we uncovered the day before. Its walls were smooth and sturdy, I made sure it wouldn't collapse on us, and on the other end of the cave, I spotted a purple sky, which could mean one thing: we found the entrance into the dungeon.

The hobs and the ogre quickly took point and the eight of us marched into the unknown in close formation. Their excited chatter echoed in the tunnel I carved, but even if we cleared the area of troglodytes, I knew better than to lower my guard. The riskiest part of this endeavor was to enter the dungeon, especially once I realized, we were high in the sky.

"What the hell? How?" Ember asked, sitting at the tunnel's edge and swinging her legs above the depths. "It's like I'm sitting on a cloud. What a weird entry point."

"This must have been a spire, or a magic tower, but only its shell remains." The shaman claimed, but I couldn't tell where he got this idea. He didn't even look around, at least his eyes were closed when he continued. "The dungeon has been terraformed over the last decade."

"Terraformed? What do you mean?" Nati asked, and Gitaut mumbled something before opening his eyes and answering her question.

"It seems this used to be an infernal dungeon, and the core was nearby. Where we stand now was the highest point of a castle, the Lord's tower if you will, but it has been destroyed years ago." The shaman explained, and I couldn't tell if he had some visionary abilities or just made things up on the fly. "The core was moved further into this plane of existence and the landscape transformed from the claustrophobic tunnels into this open field and the fake, purple skies. Whoever did it was quite powerful."

"How are we going to go down there? And how will we climb back up to leave?" Nati asked the real questions here, but Gitaut didn't flinch, levitating himself over the edge.

"The spirits will aid us in our descent, but we'll have to look for a different exit once we acquire the dungeon core." He said, then added something inaudible, and I felt as if all my weight melted away.

The others started floating as well, and before I could protest, we began our slow descent into the dungeon. If what he said was true, this spire must have been quite tall, and I couldn't imagine a Cerberus climbing it on its own to guard the entrance from the other side.

But the rough shape seemed imprinted on the sky, which did seem fake on closer inspection. I saw no sun, but plenty of light, even clouds slowly floating over the vast fields. The vegetation was lush and strange noises filled the fresh air.

I don't know what I expected an interdimensional space to be like, but it was certainly not this. And the fact that the shaman seemed so knowledgeable about this place frustrated me. I wanted to lead this expedition, and he just stole my glory with his levitation trick.

"So any idea where we will find the core?" I asked him just to test the limits of his knowledge. We gently touched down before he could answer me, and from the ground, the remains of the spire were even more pronounced. It was a tall and thin tower, the outlines looked almost transparent as if it was a ghost rather than an actual building.